The PDL advice to me.......

Overview:
My husband has PDL with 4 different places two are affliates, he owes out every two weeks approximately 3,600.00. The checks have never made it through the bank because he walks in and pays the accounts. Of course any of you in this boat will understand that he borrows from one to pay the other. First off let me say that I think he has a problem, a huge problem. This to me os no different ( for HIM) thatn somone who has a gambling problem, drug problme, or an alcoholic. It is a problem. He knows it but can't admit it. I don't understand all of it either because he owes out more to them than our biweekly bills are. So the excuse that we needed the money to pay our bills doesn't fly wiht me.

A year and half ago all this came to light for me because so much was going on in our marriage at the time. I couldn't stand him and he couldn't stand me. he was working 40 hours regular each week and 40 hours. He was tired and I was always inquiring why we didn't have any money. I was totally in the dark. We didn;t have duplicate checks and since he didn't let the checks hit our account through the PDL I never saw that eh was doing it.

When i found out I got sick ( literally). No one every thinks that their spouse would lie to them or keep things hidden from them. I am not a high maintence person and I was very well aware that we only had left over each month after bills around 700.00 for groceries, gas, entertainment and we have 4 kids together. So I was not expecting nor did I ever to live high on the hog.

We almost divorced over it. At that time he was only borrowing from three places. I went and did something I never should have done, but I did to help us out. I borrowed on my life insurance policy of 900.00 that I had agreed to pay back. That was 1 year ago and nothing has been paid back to them. I didn's cash out the policy because my grandfather got the policy after I was born in 1975 and still checks on the policy.

So we sat down and talked and he agreed that i would take over the finances. One year later and I have no control over what his paychecks are, how much incoming is coming in and what he has paid and what needs to be paid. I do not work this was an agreement that we came to when i was pregnant 3 years ago. We were doing very well the first year his income was 5,200.00 after taxes each month. But all that changed in 2005, his employer used to pay overtime separate than regular hours and now he wasn;t making as much after combining both on one check. I believe this is when it started, he had come accustomed to a certain lifestyle and wanted to try and keep it that way. Even after that we would still have had enough money and extra for our monthly bills.

So I the other day i got my credit report and thank GOD my credit is not bad at all, his on the other hand isn;t great but not ugly. So I was thinking what is the problem here? Why can't we pay this debt off, I started asking him questions and he would just answer wiht. Don't worry I will take care of it.

So I finally find out yesterday he has 4 PDL out ( not due to paid until next week) and pays interst of 1,600.00 every two weeks in interest. Well son of a that is why we can't pay things off and we are always struggling to have money for neccesities every two weeks.

I have put my marriage on hold right now to try to figure out how to deal with these people so they don't come after me. I really don't care what happens to him right now because I am so angry. I feel like I have bailed him out once if I keep bailing him out he will continue doing this.

So I found out who all the PDL are through. I was surprised anyone gave me information seeing as my name is not on the checks and when they ahve called here in the past to remind him of his appointment they won't disclose any information to me.

I am in Ohio and he owes to Cashland, Checksmart, Advance Amercia, and one of their affiliates National Advance America. ALL STORE FRONTS.

So I got good news from the two AA & NAA. They will let him make payments to them. But Cashland & Checksmart had the suckiest plan for us. They told me to let the checks bounce and NOT pay the loan. Let it go to collections. When I asked why I should do that their answer was they cannot make payment arrangments in the office. So i called Corporate and explained the situation. Their answer was let the checks bounce as well and let it go to collections. I told them that was a stupid thing to do because I would be in more debt than I was now. I would incurr the bank fees, and I think my bank will not close an account until all outstanding checks come through the bank. NOt to mention that my bank charges fees per day that the account is overdrawn.

I talked to an attorney yesterday who does bankruptcy and she gave me the same advice and said we needed to file Chapter 7. I don't want to do this because as I said my credit is good and my husband's credit isn't great but it isn't ugly either.

I really need some advice here.....

Most places will not work with you until the check bounces . . . Sucks, but that's how they work. The good news is that once you "default" on the loans, you (or should i say your husband) won't be paying that $1600 every two weeks. The money you pay will actually go towards the principle.

There are many users on here from Ohio that can probably give you better advice, but I have heard that checksmart is quick to take action - Read through some posts here and you will see that.

Bankruptcy doesn't sound like a good idea, not for 4 payday loans.

Thank you Goudah! I posted this topic and thought I was logged in. OOPS. I had a hrd time finding the topic again.

Well I forgot to add this wonderful piece of information as well. 3 of the 4 PDL places he pays every week he is using our old bank account that has been closed for 6 months. I asked him if he was out of his mind, and wanted to know why he didn't use our current bank account. I don't know what they can do legally for that if he lets the checks bounce.

Good Lord! $1,600 every two weeks!! No wonder you are honking mad at hubby! I was freaking out when we were paying like $350 every two weeks.

Ooh . . . If he took the payday loan out knowingly using an account that was closed, he could be in for some trouble . . . . . It's one thing to close an account after the loan, but to take out a loan on a closed account? That is fraud.

Won't that get them into some serious trouble? Since the pdl's are saying to let the checks go through once and then they can start a payment plan since they would be default - then they're going to find out that the account is closed. Is there any way to work with the store fronts BEFORE they put the checks through? Have them hold the checks until they're paid off? Just a question because this scares me. Maybe they could even go to the storefront and tell them the bank account information has changed? (For whatever reason they tell them!) Or is it too late for that???

I would think it would be possible to go in and tell them your account info has changed, but then you would have to refi the loan again and give them the good account info.

Redwolf - I would really suggest calling your dept of banking, and possibly and attorney. You don't want to be held responsible for any of his actions. What he did is possibly criminal.

Most of them won't hold the checks, once you don't show up to pay the refi fee, they put the check through. No amount of begging or pleading will work with most of them. It's just the way they do things.

Well for the sake of being honest here, I am smarter than hubby so my advice was to do NOTHING at this point! He needs to wait until he goes back in the 27th and then change all the accounts through the old ( closed) bank to our new account. Yes it is fraud and he doesn't think. I know he didn't do it fraudently because his mindset was I don't have time to change the account info but the checks never go through the bank so no reason to worry. Anything could happen between now and net week and that is scarey.

So he has to borrow for at least one more time before he can let the checks bounce. So he can change the checking account information first.

Yes I am mad, and disgusted and still divorce not being out of the question.

I think I may have read something somewhere about how Ohio now requires storefronts to do payment plans . . . Can anyone from Ohio confirm that?

Hi, I am in Ohio and Ohio does require that the pdl's let you do a repayment plan. The storefront pdl's will give you a really hard time at first and want payment in full, or more than you can afford. You need to be strong and eventually they will let you make payments to them without taking it into court. They will take you to court however if you don't make any effort to pay them at all. Cashland is going to tell you they need it all in 2 weeks or a month, however, tell them you just got your house out of foreclosure and you really want to get this taken care of but can only pay x amount every payday. That worked for someone I know that defaulted with them. They will eventually back down and as long as you make them the payments, they won't take you to court. I have no experience with Checksmart as they don't have one where I live in Ohio, but I think they are the worst storefront. They have been taking people to mediation for it. About the closed bank account.....I am not advocating lying but I recommend that your husband go to the storefronts in question and tell them that his account was overdrawn and the bank closed it. I don't think they will say anything. If they were following THEIR rules, they would ask for a new bank statement every time he re-borrowed so I think that is kind of their fault.
What Cashland told you is true. They will not let you make any payment arrangements at all until the checks bounce and go to their corporate office. All their collecting is done out of their home office in Cincinnati, as far as I know. Once you set up arrangements, you can make payments over the phone or go pay the store. I made them payments with my debit card to get them paid off, which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I never had any problems with them doing anything unauthorized. Good luck and feel free to ask more questions. I have dealt with almost every storefront pdl in Ohio except Checksmart but lots of other people here can help you with them!

By the way, please do not file bankruptcy just because of these four payday loans. That is not worth destroying your credit for the next 7-10 years.

Oops I messed up on the calculations of interest. He pays out half of that every month. So he loses about 800.00 a month in interest. But still 800.00 is plently that we could to pay down the little edbt we have without PDL. You guys probably think I am nuts!

I have a question concerning the laws for PDL, I thought I read somewhere that you can only take out one loan per place. So my question is this. If Advance America & National Advance America are own by the same people but have two different names didn, t they screw up by not checking to see if he had a PDL through one of their other companies. Not saying I want them to leave us alone because bottom line he borrowed and feel like he needs to pay them back. But could the fact that they screwed up be used as leverage to get them to let us make our monthly payments?

I think that since they are different names, they are considered different places. Just because they are owned by the same parent company wouldn't come into play . . . .

I had loans from both of them at the same time, also. I think because they are two different companies and I am assuming two different licenses, that they can loan legally even if you already have a loan with the other. It sounds good in theory but unfortunately, I don't think it would give you much leverage.

You are correct Goudah, they are considered two different companies.

Advance America was good to me in setting up payments. They will wait until your check bounces before they will set it up. Checksmart was something else to work with, but I believe since they are a CSFA member so they should allow you to repay them in 4 payments. Cashland collection agency was a pain for me but sending a cease letter stopped the calls and I haven't seen any letters.

They will wait until your check bounces before they will set it up.

I don't want the checks to bounce, I thought that them setting up payments arrangments menat that they knew I wanted to pay off the loan wihtouot letting the checks bounce